


Under the surface is a storm

by Mysana



Series: Naruto Short Fics [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Good Orochimaru (Naruto), Time Travel, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 19:09:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14837498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysana/pseuds/Mysana
Summary: Orochimaru lets the seal take him. Allows the death he feared so long finally reach him.





	Under the surface is a storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/gifts).



> Alrightie! I know nothing about Boruto, and have only the vaguest grasp of pre-canon timelines so just enjoy it for the fluff it mostly is.
> 
> This thing is dedicated to blackkat because all of her time travel fics inspired this fic and I couldn't decide on just one to list in the inspired by section. She's a goddess among fic writers (More than a million words in fanfiction?!)

Orochimaru feels the seal take hold and for a moment, he imagines struggling against it. He has enough power, and even Uzumaki seals aren’t invincible. But. (But.) If he did, the seal might engulf all of Konoha, and Orochimaru’s not willing to risk that. (He’s done so many bad things, somehow people seem to have forgotten, but Orochimaru will never be able to forget the hundreds of dead children. He will never be able to forget Sensei’s contentment with dying, as long as Orochimaru went with him.)

Death is the only return to heroism for one like him.

***

“Sarutobi knows of course, but I’m leading the research so any reports will come to me,” Danzo says.

Orochimaru blinks.

He remembers this. He remembers Danzo promising 50 orphans for the sake of a dead bloodline. He remembers thinking that Sensei had been willing to sacrifice so much for the war. (He remembers being proud of Sensei for finally opening his eyes to reality.) He remembers not talking about it in front of Sensei because Orochimaru never wanted to hurt him, and reminding the man would most certainly hurt him. He remembers the slowly dawning realization that, no, Sensei doesn’t know about this. (He remembers realizing it was too late. Sensei would blame Orochimaru just as much, if not more.)

“No thank you,” Orochimaru says, and stands, far more gracefully than he’s been able to manage since he changed bodies for the first time. What utter foolishness that had been. (Not in theory, no. But in practice, he lost the Snake Sage ability, lost the peaks of his skills in chakra control and physical abilities. And they smelled. The bodies were dead and they started to rot even as Orochimaru lived within them, and they stunk terribly.)

Danzo clearly doesn’t know what to do with such an answer, but he rallies after only a moment.

“It is your duty, to help try to end the war.”

“I will speak with Sensei about it,” Orochimaru says, not allowing himself to smile overly much. Well, just a little maybe. Just a smug little smirk. “I’m sure he’ll be able to find me something helpful to do.”

“I see.”

Orochimaru doesn’t wait for him to say more, gliding out of the room with ill-concealed cheer.

Walking through Konoha is strange. It’s so old fashioned compared to the city he knows. There are no skyscrapers over the Hokage Monument (he’s thankful, those buildings were hideous). Only three heads on the cliff of the Hokage Monument makes it seem almost empty. There are no trains, but he hardly needs them with the current size of the village. It’s so small, and he can feel the impact the war has had on the area. The streets are quieter than they should be, and he can hear civilians whisper about him on the edge of his hearing. He didn’t miss that part of the past, but he’s suffered much worse now than he had the first time he lived through his. Words can do much but can force little. If Orochimaru won’t allow the words to force him into a mistake then they’ve lost much of their power.

Walking up the Sensei’s office is strange. It feels as though he’ll walk in to see Naruto at his desk, whinging to Shikamaru about paperwork. Instead, it’s Sensei, looking so young (and so tired already).

“Sensei,” Orochimaru says, nodding in greeting but allowing a concerned expression to cover his face.

“Orochimaru, how are you?” Sensei smiles and puts his paperwork to the side.

“If you are sure that the mokuton is the only way to win this war surely there are better ways to do it?” Orochimaru lets a tiny amount of frustration bleed into his voice as if he thinks Sensei was the one who suggested the idea. (As if he’s assuming Sensei knows what he’s talking about.)

“Pardon?”

“Experimenting? During a war? Surely there are better things I can do - I know that without Tsunade and Jiraiya you are reluctant to send me out to the front lines but-“

“Orochimaru, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sensei says, looking wide-eyed, alert, and somewhat concerned by his student’s behavior. Orochimaru pauses from his pacing in front of the desk. Slowly he turns to his Sensei and looks at him, really looks at him, as if to see some hidden truth in his teacher. Then he moves and sits across from him.

“Sensei, Danzo came to me. He said he would provide orphans to work with to recreate the mokuton. He said you accepted such things as a necessity.” Just so that neither Sensei nor Danzo can wave this off he adds, “he said that you had authorized it.” Orochimaru affects a stunned and quietly furious tone. Sensei swallows down some platitude or another.

“Thank you, Orochimaru,” Sensei sounds truly touched, “for coming to me with this.” Orochimaru remembers the independent young man he had been, Sensei seems honestly surprised that Orochimaru would come to him.

“I-“ Orochimaru cuts himself off, “Of course, Sensei, I would come to you. How could I do anything else?” They both pretend that Orochimaru hasn't kept secrets time and time again (is keeping a rather large one right this very second).

“Have Danzo come to me,” Sensei says, gesturing to one of the ANBU in the room. Orochimaru glances away, embarrassed on his past self's behalf for having ever thought his teacher would condone experimentation on Konoha orphans.

“Before that-“ Orochimaru starts, “Sensei. I want to help. And I know you don’t want me to leave the village before Tsunade and Jiraiya come back. I was thinking-“ _god this will be so lonely. I don’t want to be alone. I miss my children. I miss my village._ “maybe I could be a jounin sensei?”

Sensei raises an eyebrow and looks at him in surprise.

“A genin team. You want a genin team.” He looks understandably disbelieving. Orochimaru puts on a look as though he’s swallowed something sour.

“The villagers- civilians and shinobi -they distrust me. I- I know that I’m… me.” Orochimaru pauses, remembering the boiling rage, confusion, and betrayal. Then he pushes it back down again, unwilling to risk being lost in it once more. “I’ll need to have trained a genin team to become Hokage anyway.”

Sensei is watching him with an unreadable look on his face that makes Orochimaru nervous.

“Of course you can have a team. There’s a class graduating in a month. Does that work for you?”

“I suppose,” Orochimaru says in a mock-grudging tone, rolling his eyes. His old self would’ve made some comment about Jiraiya that would’ve killed the mood before leaving. Orochimaru can’t quite get himself to do that though. Instead he stands, and bows, and makes his way out of the building. If he remembers correctly, then the war is almost over, but another one will start in less than five years. In the meantime, Jiraiya’s student - Namikaze - is still at the academy, and his darling Anko hasn’t even been born yet. He can remember this time in broad strokes, but the details are fuzzy. He remembers that Tsunade was on a mission, that she hadn’t told him she was leaving and somehow that had been his breaking point. The kunai that ripped the pouch. The tug that broke the rope. The jab that angered the Akimichi.

***

Among the other things he had forgotten, the location of his apartment was apparently one of them.

***

Orochimaru summons Kiyohime as soon as the door to his room is shut. She immediately darts forward to attack him and Orochimaru presses a hand down on the base of her skull.

“ _Peace sister_ ,” He hisses in the tongue that his mother taught him.

“You think me a fool!” She hisses in human tongue, “you think you can trick me with the skin of my summoner!”

It has been many years since Kiyohime died and Orochimaru had forgotten about her never-ending paranoia of betrayal and trickery.

“ _Peace sister, it is I. I have spent more time under both sun and moon-_ “ snakes don’t have time in quite the same way humans do, not even summoning snakes- “ _since you last saw me. An enemy sent me here. The me who was smaller-_ “ really the only choices to say younger are ‘smaller’ and ‘nestling’ “ _is gone, and I am here_.”

Orochimaru is still but doesn’t release Kiyohime as she scents the air a few times.

“ _You smell as my summoner did,_ ” she admits, speaking once more in the snake tongue.

“ _I am in the scales of my smaller self_.”

“ _I comprehend. I thought you another because your chakra is different. You are different, but you are still my summoner._ ” Kiyohime says, and when Orochimaru lifts his hand, she curls around his wrist and up his arm to enjoy his limited warmth.

***

“Our sensei is _Orochimaru_?” The girl whispers (loudly) in disbelief to her teammates. She doesn’t sound condescending or unhappy about it, only disbelieving.

“I guess so?” The other says. The third jabs an elbow into the second's ribs and they all fall silent. They’re so small and helpless, and where before he would’ve seen opportunity, now he sees a duty to protect.

***

“-And this is my son, Kakashi,” Sakumo says, and Orochimaru barely manages to keep the struck expression off his face. He had forgotten that Sakumo didn’t die for another four years. (Something whispers in the back of his mind, more hopeful than he’d managed since his return.)

“Sakumo,” Orochimaru says, “I’ve met Kakashi before. Your wife introduced me when he was named.” After a pause he remembers, “though I suppose you were on a mission at the time.”

“Aah.” Sakumo, for all his cheer, had been almost as socially inept as Orochimaru was. At least, as far as Orochimaru had ever seen. Tsunade claimed Sakumo was smoother than silk when Orochimaru wasn’t around. (Orochimaru wasn’t quite sure how to interpret that. Perhaps Sakumo was one of the many that feared him, at least a little? That was an unpleasant thought.)

“According to Sensei you’ve continued to run missions with Kakashi,” Orochimaru says, looking down at the very young child, barely old enough to walk on his own.

“Well yes,” Sakumo admits, clearly reading the disapproval in Orochimaru’s voice, “Only lower ranked missions, B-ranks mostly.” Orochimaru continues to watch Sakumo with a stony face. He feels like a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to disavowing child endangerment, but that doesn't mean it's okay to take a child on dangerous missions. It's not like Sakumo is in need of the money they provide. “I’ll have to stop soon, Kakashi’s getting a bit old to be wrapped up on my back and all.”

“Clearly you need something more to do than go on missions,” Orochimaru says, having allowed the pause to drag on long enough that Sakumo looks incredibly uncomfortable. “Join me for dinner. Both of you.”

***

“Orochimaru?” Jiraiya repeats in disbelief, “has a _genin team_?”

“Yes, he does.” Tsunade says, “I do too.” She admits, a moment later.

“Really you’ve fallen behind Jiraiya,” Orochimaru says, “unless you’ve brought those poor orphans back with you?” Jiraiya gives the ground a look with many parts to it, mostly guilt.

“He’s also dating Sakumo Hatake.”

“I am _not_ dating Sakumo Hatake!”

Jiraiya looks between the both of them clearly at war with himself. It sounds too implausible to be true (it must be too implausible to be true, right?) but at the same time, Jiraiya hated it when Orochimaru was right.

***

“Are you here to wish us good luck, Sensei?” Jun asks, outside of the entrance to the chunin exams.

“Why would I do that? It’s not as if you’ll need it.” Orochimaru says, pausing before ruffling Jun's hair. Definitely the neediest of his Genin, Jun. Jun pouts, unappeased.

"It's bad luck if you don't," Asumi says, checking her pouch for the fifteenth time. These children.

“Fine,” Orochimaru rolls his eyes, “good luck.” He was telling the truth when he said they wouldn't need it. Tsunade's Genin aren't taking part in this Chunin exam and there is no one else who might give them trouble. Truthfully, they've been ready to be chunin for a while, but he wanted to make sure before he risked putting them out in the field without his support.

***

“Tsunade?”

“Yes?” Tsunade asks, watching the poison as she drips in what she thinks is the antidote.

“I’m going to kill Danzo.”

“I see. And why is that?”

“He’s still running ROOT even after Sensei had it disbanded and I think they might be interfering on my missions. On Sakumo’s too.”

“Those are all problems, but the first one seems like the only one you could prove.” Tsunade checks the microscope and swears quietly while pulling on a pair of gloves. “Why don’t you just go tell Sensei about it?”

“If Sensei didn’t kill him when Danzo tried to make me experiment on Konoha orphans, I doubt this would be the thing to do it.”

There are a few moments of complete silence before Orochimaru realizes Tsunade has completely frozen.

“He. Did. What?”

***

**Here lies Danzo Shimura, hero of Konoha.**

The gravestone lies, but Orochimaru doesn’t care as long as the bastard is dead. The third shinobi war should have started almost half a year ago, Sakumo should be dead, Dan Kato should be dead. He doesn't know how much is his fault and how much is Danzo's, but it doesn't really matter.

Things have changed.

***

“My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I’m gonna be a traveling sage like my godfather! I used to want to be Hokage, it turns out it’s actually a really boring job! My hobbies are playing with my little sister and training. I hate instant ramen and people who are jerks like teme-” the boy gestures to his teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, “-And yeah! My dream is ta’ be a spymaster!”

**Author's Note:**

> Edited 15/1/19


End file.
